


Briefly

by straeon



Category: Emmerdale, robron
Genre: AU, Depression referenced, M/M, One Night Stand, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-17 13:30:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8145805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/straeon/pseuds/straeon
Summary: If Robert had never returned to the village, might he have met Aaron differently? And would they have ended up together?





	

Aaron was on a train to nowhere.

Obviously to somewhere but he didn’t care where to. This wasn’t about getting to a destination. Or the journey either, or any crap like that.

He was just getting away.

When he got off the first train, he hardly looked around, the setting surrounding him an uninteresting blur. He picked up a quick sandwich, ignored the people who waited for their trains together around him, all the irritating chatter, then sat on a bench, with his rucksack next to him as a warning to anyone who might want to sit there.

It was bitingly cold anyway, but this was still preferable to being inside the train station café. The milling inside somehow repelled him. Something inside of him told him to get away from them.

Since he left the village, and even before that, he avoided eye contact with anyone, made monotonous responses when expected, sat alone and stared out a window, giving the clear vibe to be left alone.

He didn’t care the tips of his fingers were red, he simply rolled his sleeves over his hands and waited until his next train arrived.

When he got onto it, he again ensured he was sitting alone, rucksack on the seat next to him, and stared out the window, not really seeing anything. The greenery of Yorkshire the rolling hills, had been familiar, like a monotonous background when he was so used to it, though it brought no other feeling from him. Now the view was becoming more urban. At least he was getting away.

Sighing, he sat back and reached for his sandwich, opening the plastic putting it back onto the table in front of him noisily. An older woman across the aisle gave him a look and Aaron rolled his eyes and looked away, chewing. At least it was quiet. But then it was the middle of the day, in the middle of the week. He’d just dropped everything, after all.

He also turned his phone off when the vibrations from someone texted him or tried to call continued to irritate the woman across him. He nearly could have left it on to annoy her further, as she deserved for looking at him like he was dirt in a hoody, but it was easier to ignore this way.

Chas didn’t understand and Adam would be annoyed at him for leaving work, maybe Paddy too might realise he’d left and wonder if it had anything to do with him. Which it did, in part, but only because of how distant they’d become. All the easier to leave, who really noticed other than that handful, who would get used to it tomorrow? He’d call his mum later, tell her where he was (vaguely), ask her to apologise to Adam for him, stop her fretting.

After some more minutes of silence, Aaron found himself wondering if the woman across from him had a family. If she was visiting someone. Is that what most people on the train would be doing right now? Or coming back? From somewhere. She had checked her own phone a few times. She had family. A wedding ring. A husband.

Aaron looked away quickly as she glanced up, eyebrows drawn together.

She grumbled about something in the paper, to do with politics, some leader or other, and he nodded politely, said something derogatory about all politicians. Pointless small talk to avoid some of the awkwardness before they returned to ignoring each other, as people were at least allowed to do on public transport. Maybe he actually agreed with her, but his mind wouldn’t focus on anything right now.

Before he’d expected, they were arriving, the train slowing down. He only had his rucksack to pick up, and rubbish to throw away on his way out of the train, making his way down the tight space until he could breathe some fresh air, his body welcoming some movement after the long journey. Time seemed to have blurred though. He didn’t know if he was on time, he didn’t care what time it was.

Absently, he walked into the nearest café, hungry again so some time must have passed (though he’d left without breakfast, simply collecting his things after deciding in the early hours he had to get away).

It was busy now with the arrival of the train but it was bigger, for a bigger station and town, not one of those stuffy little places with coffee, some rags to choose from and maybe 3 tables. Walking further from the entrance than he needed to, he found an isolated space and sat at the white table, feeling he could blend in to the neutral colours of the café (grey and beige, what they called neutral on daytime TV he sometimes wasted his time watching just because it was on). Eventually he ordered coffee, the cheapest and a grilled sandwich, the cheapest.

He rolled his eyes as the man who walked up to the till after him, as he waited for his order, always awkward, as coffee houses weren’t really his thing. A slightly older man in a fancy suit, tall and blond, he’d ordered an Americano and some fancy dish with salad, charming the server as he did so. As she stepped away, he exchanged a look with Aaron, who’d been looking at him absently, and Aaron looked away, nearly embarrassed. He’d forgotten that just because he was ignoring the people around him doesn’t mean they had to be ignoring him too – he’d probably noticed the eye roll.

But he put his hands in his pockets and looked away as well, perusing the menu aimlessly, the corners of his lips curling up however, with some air of arrogant self-satisfaction, and he still shot a couple of glances his way and seemed to half watch him as he received his order and returned to his seat. 

With a sigh, he took out his phone from his pocket and placed it on the table, for something to do with his hands, to focus his attention on. His eyes flicked over his texts, not really reading them, and he sent one to his mum telling her she’d arrived, then checked the football scores when he got the WiFi working, while stuffing his grilled sandwich into his mouth.

When he heard a chuckle not too far from him, followed my throat clearing, he looked up, and checked around him. The suited man was sitting a few tables across from him, with a clear view between them over the empty tables. He was looking away from him in the way that made it clear he was actually watching him.

Aaron dropped his food back down on the table with an outtake of breath. He assumed he was some fucking stuck up snob with a stick up his ass, who ate salads and got manicures. He shook his head and decided to ignore him, continuing with his sandwich.

When he had his mouth full again, he heard the chair next to him screech over the floor, the smug blond placing himself down on it, with his salad placed down in front of him.

 _Who the fuck asked you to?_ Aaron might’ve asked if he was able to.

“Y’alright?” he asked Aaron, with a more northern accent and a deeper, smoother voice than he’d expected.

Aaron shrugged in response, his eyebrows furrowed.

“It’s not very busy, is it?” He continued, sitting back and lounging with an arm over the back of his seat, stretching his long legs out in front of him. “I’m here for a meeting. What are you in town for?”

“Not much,” Aaron said after swallowing.

“Not chatty, eh?” He smiled, flashing the whiteness of his teeth at Aaron. “That's okay." He watched Aaron's face for a moment, with bright eyes.

Oh, it’s Robert, by the way.” His arm raised slightly as if to give an automatic handshake but he dropped his hand down, rubbing it over his knee, as Aaron watched curiously.

“Aaron.”

“Nice,” Robert replied with a small smile. As he looked down over him, Aaron’s own eyes were pulled to his long eyelashes and the flash of striking blue. When he looked back up at him, Aaron noticed the green as well, the deep creases of his skin surrounded his eyes with his smile, and the light brown specks all over his pale skin. His skin looked impossibly smooth, especially considering the lines, around his mouth as well (which his eyes still were drawn to).

 _Probably moisturised as well_ , Aaron thought scornfully as he bowed his head back down, at his fingers still pressing into the cooked bread, noticing the dirt under his broken nails.

“Want some salad?” Robert offered.

“Are you saying I need it?” Aaron asked with a cock of his head.

“No,” Robert smiled, his eyes seeming to take in his body again. “Definitely not.”

Squirming slightly, now it was Aaron’s turn to clear his throat. He didn’t know whether to feel uncomfortable – somehow he didn’t – but what he was was confused. Who he’d thought was just one of those creeps who liked small talk with strangers in public might be an altogether different kind of creep. But he could be getting his signals crossed… He’d barely interacted with anyone all day, he couldn’t assume the first person he carried on an actual conversation with was flirting with him.

“Do you get manicures?” Aaron suddenly asked, looking down at Robert’s hands, as soft looking as the rest of him. He didn’t know where it had come from, and knew he must have looked confused at himself now.

“Um, I –“ Robert hesitated with a laugh. “Only if my – my boss tells me to.”

“Boss? What do you do?” He asked, simply to move on. He assumed he was a banker, something boring.

“Agricultural machinery. Or, we run an agricultural machinery business.” Pride dripped from the word ‘we’. Aaron couldn’t picture the man across from him, every part of him seeming meticulously smoothed down, riding a tractor – or doing a Paddy with his arm up a cow’s backside – though he was surprised that this somehow was more connected to where he was from. He supposed he was quite high up in the business. “And you?” Robert asked to fill the space between them.

“Mechanic,” Aaron said automatically, then added with a shrug. “And scrap.”

“Cars,” Robert noted with an impressed nod. “I like cars.”

 _Who doesn’t?_ Aaron feigned an interested look – he didn’t know why.

_Pedestrians?_

“Maybe you can work on mine some time,” Robert smiled down at him again, in a decidedly suggestive way. But what he was suggesting Aaron didn’t know, caught off guard.

“You what?” Aaron demanded.

“What?” Robert asked innocently.

“Okay, you just come up to someone and assume they should work for you or –“ Aaron gave an angry laugh at him – now only seeing his smugness, the superiority, and angry at himself for being taken in by shallow charm for a moment, and entertaining a creepy stranger.

“No!”

He couldn’t believe he was now so desperate for something – for someone – that he was projecting something onto any half decent looking man he saw. He might as well just stop at a gay bar and pick up a random next – at least he might be able to find someone less obnoxious, and already up his own ass.

“Really, I didn’t mean anything,” Robert was continuing.

“It doesn’t matter,” Aaron shook his head. “I need to –“ He picked up his phone, as if he had urgent texts or call he had any intention of returning.

“You want me to go?” Robert asked, seeming actually surprised.

“Yeah,” Aaron answered simply, shooting him an expectant look.

With his arm over the back of his chair and the other hand on the table, he looked like he was about to get up – but he seemed to change his mind.

“You know, your ears go red when you’re angry,” Robert said with a cheeky smile and a glint in his eye that told Aaron everything he needed to know, as he shook his head at the comment.

“It’s cute,” Robert continued, leaning in slightly.

God, the only thing that distracted Aaron from his slowly building anger right now was how good he smelt, like expensive cologne, and how flawlessly good looking he was.

“Where are you staying?” Robert asked, knowing how Aaron’s sense were taking him in right now.

“What’s it to you?” Was all Aaron said.

“I could tell you where I’m staying,” Robert conceded. “It’s not far.”

“I’m not interested,” Aaron said, swallowing.

“Yeah, you are,” Robert said with a smile.

A part of Aaron wanted to punch the grin off his face – or at least reject him so cuttingly that it would take him down a few pegs. When he was this sure of himself, picking men up in a fucking train station, telling Aaron how he felt, Aaron’s anger at his attitude, at his gall, still boiled under the surface.

But what he did feel was an undeniable attraction to some kind of warm, to feel his skin against his own, to get under the surface of that smug, impeccable exterior, to literally place his hands under his clothes, as his eyes lingered over the top buttons of his shirt. A ridiculous fancy purple shirt, like the rest of the suit, clearly not Aaron’s usual type. Maybe all he wanted was to mess him up, see what he was like in Aaron’s cheap, probably grubby (what he’d expect for the price) hotel room, see how he kept that arrogant façade.

Or he wanted to get into his bed, with new, crisp, expensive sheets, hold onto his body on top of him, probably warm and soft and welcoming, even if his personality wasn’t, to connect to someone in the sea of anonymity which he’d escape to. He didn’t know who he was, but he was someone, and this man, he didn’t know who Aaron was either, and what did it matter? They both wanted the same thing… It was one way to wipe the grin off his face.

“You think I haven’t noticed you’re wearing a wedding ring?” Was what Aaron finally said to him.

“I don’t think that,” Robert said, without missing a beat, seemingly unshaken by Aaron’s pointing out that he was married. “I didn’t think you’d care. I don’t.”

Aaron scoffed and looked away.

This was anonymous – their night, or whatever, together would be anonymous, just two bodies coming together. But Aaron would know that he’d shagged a married man, simply out of desperation for another man’s touch.

“No,” Aaron said, shaking his head.

Robert shrugged. He wouldn’t be – he hardly needed to. But he knew what Aaron wanted, still wanted.

His hand, with thing long fingers Aaron could too easily imagine around his cock, already twitching under the table, reached across the table. He took ahold of Aaron’s phone, not waiting for any permission to do so. He put in his number then placed it back down and got back up in a single movement.

“Call me,” Robert said in his alluring deep voice. “Or I’ll text you where I’m staying.”

As he walked away, grabbing his suitcase and leaving the train station altogether, to his meeting Aaron guessed, Aaron let a long breath, which he hadn’t realised he’d been holding in. Adrenaline seemed to pump through him. Of course he still wanted him, despite his better reasoning. But there was a thrill to the idea of forgetting everything with a man he’d just met as well, who was hateful to him most things he could see about him, but also magnetic and even intriguing.

He fingered his phone for a moment thoughtfully. Then turned it off.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no posted something in a while, so please be kind. :)
> 
> This is based on an idea for a Brief Encounter AU, but much more of a Robron version of that, also with some of the film Weekend in mind. 
> 
> Rated E for later.


End file.
